Known as a conventional glass fusing method in the above-mentioned technical field is a method which burns a glass layer containing a laser-light-absorbing pigment onto one glass member along a region to be fused, then superposes the other glass member on the one glass member with the glass layer interposed therebetween, and irradiates the glass layer with laser light along the region to be fused, so as to fuse the glass members to each other.
Meanwhile, a typical technique for burning a glass layer onto a glass member is one which removes an organic solvent and a binder from a paste layer containing a glass frit, a laser-light-absorbing pigment, the organic solvent, and the binder, so as to secure the glass layer to the glass member, and then heats the glass member having the glass layer secured thereto in a firing furnace, so as to melt the glass layer, thereby burning the glass layer onto the glass member (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).
For fixing a glass layer to a glass member, techniques for removing organic matters (organic solvents and binders) from the glass layer by irradiation with laser light instead of heating in the furnace have also been proposed (see, for example, Patent Literatures 2 and 3). Such techniques can prevent functional layers and the like formed on glass members from being worsened by heating and inhibit the energy consumption from being increased by the use of the furnace and the heating time from becoming longer in the furnace.